† Cy Twombly

Goodnight, King.
Cover the skies with your scribbles,
the stars as your ink.

Cy Twombly 1928 – 2011

Artist Cyprien Gaillard creates party pyramid. But we’ll call it art.

I’ve mentioned Cyprien Gaillard before. I will  not lie, I was drawn to his face first. Then came the art.
The Parisian born and now Berlin based artist is back on the scene with this hilarious installation over at the KW Institue for Contemporary Art in Berlin. Constructing a massive beer pyramid, Galliard hopes to find the connection between alcohol, socialism and architecture. While that sounds well and good I have to agree with ArtStars’ Nadja Sayej and call it a nod to freshman year or better yet a total metaphor of the Berlin art scene.
Drunken piss-poor creatives having a laugh.
I envy every single one of them.

Images courtesy of KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Berlin.

Awesome vid of Nadja running amok the exhibition.

Meet Mikey & Nata: Illustrators & my bad ass friends.

I’ve always considered my self incredibly lucky.
When I moved to Toronto a few years ago I would have never pictured my life the way it is now, surrounded by the love of so many incredibly talented friends. At times I marvel at their creativity, light, hard work and the joy they take in creating beautiful things. Be it music, moving pictures, photography, wicked words, illustration or even economic advice. It is because of these very people, known simply as The Family, that I have picked away at my insecurity and I am writing more and more with much happiness and less fear. And for this, I would like to thank them!

First up on the docket, are power illustrators and super besties, Michael De Pippo and Natalia Grosner. Known mostly for their divine design skills, impromptu facebook profile photoshoot parties (am not kidding) and straight-up bitch attitudes.

Michael De Pippo, but you can call him Mikey

This art director, illustrator and designer has been collecting and obsessing over cartoons for as long as he can remember. One only needs to peek about his super swank apartment to spot the unique amassment of toys jammed neatly in to tucked away corners and in to a super cool vintage apothecary cabinet. While I’ve always been a fan of his work (THERE IS A CARTOON ME), his latest is a true testament of love combining his adoration for both vintage cereal box art and the legendary Michael Jackson. The Result? A fun and playful series of pop-art pieces that I’m set to throw up on my wall the second I get my hands on the set!



Images courtesy of Michael DePippo, and if you like what you see (and I know that you do) contact Mikey directly at mdepippo@gmail.com

Natalia Grosner, but you can call her  Nata G.

I’m pretty sure I’ve written about my badass bud, Nata, before. I’ve been hankering over her hip-hop watercolours for ages now, and it’s safe to say that the majority of The Family have a pretty piece hanging somewhere about their abodes. My girl is currently a freelance illustrator with an eye for the perfect pair of shoes, a lust for vitamin D, a deep loathing for Lady Gaga, a love for back-pack hippity hop and has no problem calling you out on your bullshit. She’s got this massive knack at creating cool typography (check out the super model series) and her latest work is so fashtastic I can’t stop talking about it. Taking her cue from Berlin’s Nancy Zhang, Natalia has created these cute and cool  illustrations to celebrate her second love, fashion.



You can check out the rest of the Fall 2011 series over at behance and maybe if you ask ever so nicely she’ll create a custom special something just for you. For inquiries and general fanmail contact Nata G directly at grosner@gmail.com

Next time on ‘What About Your Friends?’ we talk Music with my Funk soul sistas. xo

Sonja Ahlers: Collage Queen, purveyor of dreams.

Ask any of my nearest and dearest and they will inform you that my sorry attempts at creating art will usually lead to a pile of shredded magazines, splattered ink stains and photographs strewn together upon various cork surfaces, before being nailed to a  bedroom wall. These collaged squares reflect cavernous moments of my life: boy-band crushes, water-colored fairy tales, angry alt phases, mini memorials of boyfriends past, Biro scratched notes to man-friends present, amongst the photographs of smiling friendly faces of best-friends, siblings and the obligatory shot of the parents.



In no way do I call my trials at photo-montage art, these collections of clippings are merely a reflection of my questionable taste in wall decor. Can you really call a collage a piece of genuine art? Judging my own work I think not. But flip through artist/writer Sonja Ahlers’ new book titled The Selves and you can’t help but become a believer.  One part diary, two part scrapbook  and a dash of  wit, The Sleves is an anthology of a woman’s multifaceted psyche; all chopped-up, glued back together and brought to life in dreamy technicolor illustration and sharp prose.

These pages are so beautiful and teeming with nostalgia  that I have already placed my order at Ahlers’ web-shop. Plus, any fiery femme who references The Verve, will have my full support.

“I’m a million different people from one day to the next I can’t change my mold … no no no no no”
Bitter Sweet Symphony

PREACH!

beauty in the fall

Have spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading up on mixed-media artist Cyprien Gaillard.
And so should you.

Kate MacDowell: white lights

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words–to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. – C.S. Lewis.

Such beauty in ghost white.
I want every single piece, both the gory and the delicate.
To check out more of Kate MacDowell’s work click here.

Dreaming Dasha

“The Weeks of Dasha” is stunning conceptual fashion film project by Swedish cinematographer Emil Klang.  Here Klang fuses two of his favourite mediums to create a movie series about a fictional young Russian girl, Dasha, who moves to Stockholm and is followed for a year.

Klang has created 52 web-isodes showcasing beautiful  fashion pieces created by both international and Swedish designers all worn by the characters featured in the films. So far I have spotted Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair, Hope, Dagmar and Noir et Blanc in what I can safely call an amazing animated look-book.

I have posted the first week’s episode below, be sure to catch up and watch the rest here.